thou mayest better disarme their fiercenesse they must be base and low entreaties which must asswage the fury of their first assault For this torrent if it bee opposed by noe resistance will languish in a moment and become quiet This warinesse and timorous wisedome is onely to be vsed in Townes or publike fields where a concourse of people to side with them thââ did first abuse thee is eytherâ gathered already or presently to be expected But in priuâââ places and where thy ãâã would not prooue too ãâã vnequall then bee sure to expresse at least in shew a boâd spirit not brooking iniuries by which meanes thou wilt terrifie them which doe not insult out of true valour but are as ready to receiue as to offer wrong The Magistrates and Iudges are fauourable to the complaints of strangers and forward to punish the people which doe them wrong vnlesse it bee a multitude that doe offend whom it is easie to blame but hard and for the most part too much cruelty to punish And soe wondrously hospitable are the seaâes of Iustice in that Nation that if a stranger offend hee shall finde them fauourable or if it happen that a stranger and an Englishmen be both guilty of one fact which deserueth eyther the whip or the gallowes the stranger many times is no further punished but onely commanded to depart the Kingdome The gentlemen are naturally enclined to a kinde entertainment of all strangers and are worthily ambitious in such curtesies Soe that no man vnlesse of a froward and baâbarous disposition and altogether vnworthy of Noble company can repent himselfe of trauelling into Englaâd Among those Noblemen whose carriage is graue and their speech and gesture fitâed to their dignity you mâst comply with an answerable grauity and aemulation as it were of mâiesty least they perchance should vnderâalue you from their owne grauity and your speech which must not bee to them in a soothing manner like the Italian and French humility you will otherwise carry a lower estimation among those men who accustome not themselues vnto affected humanity and lying complement To the Northern parts of England Scotland adioyneth gouerned by a scepter of incredible antiquity compared with other Kingdomes for the crowne of Scotland aboue twenty ages hath endured in the possession of one Family An hundred and twenty Kings haue successiuely reigned from Fergââââ the First to Iames that now ãâã who to soe anciancient a pedigree adding the Royalty of England is the first that combined the Kingdomes and reigneth entirely ouer all Brittaine The Scots are of dispositions fitted for society of behauiour and gestures of the body excelling other Nations and like vnto the French in all things but the riches of their country For the country Northward ãâã in many places not fit for ãâã and full of barren mountaines neyther are those mountaines clothed with woods vnlesse some which are raysed into a sharper climate and giue a woody and barbarous name to the inhabitants Yet Nature hath bestowed vpon it those hardy people abundance of vââtuall in fowle and ãâ¦ã besides their flocks and heards of cattell It is sight vsuall to see three hundred red Deere or more in one heard But the inhabitants can rowze farre greater heards when the Noblemen are pleased to hunt there Neither doe they want comodities in their country fit to exchange for forreyne merchandises which are transported thither of necessary vse But the scarcity of money by no art or industry can be redrâssed foe that they which in their owne country doe liue in plenty and with great attendance are not able in âorreine parts to maintaine their port But noe people are more mindefull of their pedigrees then they that they had rather sometimes disgrace their Family by their pouerty then conceale the vnseasonable expressing of their titles or not mention their kindred For it is necessary in a country more populous then fruitfull that some of Noble blood should bee borne to extreme pouerty Soe that the Scots dispersed into many countries to get their liuing and none are more faithfull and industrious then they being still eager in publishing their Nobility are often laughed at by the hearers then beleeued or pitted But the people couragious also against themselues are diuided by many and fierce enmities and cruell to each other beyond an lawes of humanity or hatred For being diuided by Families and Names they hold those as Princes of their factions which possesse the most ancient inheritance of the Family To those men they are wonderously obseruant with a loue as great ââmost as to their country it selfe to them when they are wronged they ãâã for succour vsing the patronage and strength of their owne Family By this meanes it has heppened that small quarrells betwixt men of obscuâe condition haue beene the causes of great and horrible commotions For they that haue quarrelled complayning on both sides to the Princes of their Kindred haue turned their ãâã wrongs into the inâââes of whole families Nor are these differences decided with little blood for sometimes gathered into troopes and almost into iust armuââ they fight it out and these ãâã continue to their heires after them They thinke iâ glorious to reuââge âurder with thunder and firewith fire Nor doe they alwayes deale by ãâã force but by sââres and treacheries Nothing can bee ãâã or ignoble to them ãâ¦ã cure their eyes onely by the miseries of their enemies And this mischiefe has often beene the ouerthrow of Noblemen who haue eyther beene slaine in fight or else vndone in their estates by keeping such multitudes of seruants and tenants about them for soe it was necessary for feare of suddaine assaules from their enemies whilest their Lands ãâã lyenântilled and wast And some heue thought ãâ¦ã of wood in the country has beene caused by these enmities whilest these cruell people on both sides haue burnt vp their enemies woods and ãâã their priuate iniuries with the deuastation of their country But these things ãâã were more to ãâ¦ã when they were ãâã where riââ now since wee see it other wise wee may cherish hereafter better hopes For although heretofore it lay not in the power of the Kings to remedy soe great a mischiefe when the Nobles by the faithfulnesse number of their clients were more fierce and strong yet the now reigning King Iames of Brittaine has at last bestowed this benefit vpon this country ãâ¦ã haue encouraged others to the same audacity especially least they should seeme to haue borne a fearefull and degenerate anger Hee therefore thought it best at once and for euer to compound these deadly ãâã The King therefore tooke a diligent account of those whose Familyes were engaged in such quarrells and partly in his owne person partly by the me ãâ¦ã any more named among them a great and admirable worke of a most wise and industrious King yet not performed without much time and wonderfull felicity Two yeares after hee had thus appealed Scotland hee
call âanizariâs discontinued from the exercise of true warre in idlenesse and city-delights are growne to a mutinous but ãâã boldnesse Hence the proud souldiers beginne to lose their discipline as not fit to endure ãâã labour or felicity There were the ãâã that made the Romans there to ãâ¦ã But those of them which gouerne Aegypt especially the ãâã at Great-Caâre do with great praise exercise the glory of their old warfare for remooâed farre from Court they are exercised to daily labours incurbing those troopes of robbers which from the mountaine-tops vse to make rodes into the valleyes But these souldiers valiant onely against a troope of flying theeues and yeelding enemies if they should fall vpon the strengâh of our armies would perhaps vse the ãâã of their horses in which they excell not so much for battell as for their owne safety by flight That vse of the bow the specâall strength of the Turke which was once so formidable to the world is now neglected I suppose because this art cannot bee attained without much ãâã and labour of the body and at this day the souldiers spoyled with âase and discipline ceasing will not buy valour at so deare a rate Their bowes are short and cannot be bent but by those that are skilfull but they discharge their arrowes with much more violence then our ãâã do their leaden bullets We saw indeed and could scarce credit our owne eyes a piece of ãâã three inches thicke pierced by a little arrow And no lesse wonder was it that a shalt wanting an iron head shot from a bow thorow the body of an indifferent tree appeared at both sides This art was taught to a man of great account among vs when hee was at Constantinople by an old souldier of Sclymans who confessed that skill by the slothfulnesse of his fellowes was quite lost and that there were scarâe three in that vast Empire which were carefull to preserâe in themselues that fortitude of their ancestours hee sayd the rest had weake bowes and onely dangerous to light-armed men If wee would make vse of the benefit of God and their vices what were more easy then at this time to ãâã those wealthy Prouinces out of their barbarous hands their oâdâury which they accounted valour being now forgotten This do those poore Christians who groane vnder the yoake of their barbarous tyranny expect froÌ vs being a great multitude but destitute of armes and leaders this âur temples and rites of religion which they wickedly haue abolished and lastly humanity extinguished and countries once richly tilled now rude and desart nor euer vnlesse by our aide able to regaine their old lustre But if any be discouraged to thinke of so many attempts and so much wealth heretofore vainely wasted whilst our ancestours striued to redeeme Syria Palestine and Agypt out of the hands of Saracens and as often with great forces taking expeditions against the Turkes let him consider that they were more vanquished by emulation among themselues then by those enemies To let passe the Grecian Princes who were alwaies ill affected to our Western soldiers how often haue wee by vnprofitable hatred wasted our owne strength against our selues It were not fit to shame this age with late examples nor curiously to rehearse old calamities The mortall dissensions of the French and English in those warres shall bee argument enough of griefe and caution Richard the first King of England surnamed Cor de-lion led an Army into Syria and hauing reuenged the wrongs which Cyprus had done him hee had driuen the Souldan to extreme feares who was aduising to deliuer vp Ierusalem and so make peace with the Christians when loe Philip King of France surnamed Augustus returning himselfe from Syria ill affected to King Richard marched with his army into Normandy Normandy was then vnder the crowne of England and assaulting his townes some he tooke by force others by feare and faction So King Richards intent on the publike quarrell of Christendome was called home into Europe to preserue his owne estate and the Saracens at that time were by meanes of the French deliuered from the Christian army who were afterwards beholding to the English for the like benefit For scarce an age after when Philip of Valois King of France with all the strength of his Kingdome was bent vpon this Pious warre there came to ioyne with him the Kings of Nauarre Arragon and Bohemia and many besides whom eyther the strength of their kingdomes or the holynesse of the warre had inuited Their Fleete lay at anchor which carried forty thousand armed men and victuall for three yeeres their army to march by land was 300000. men But this so great preparation and hope of the Christian world was quite hindered by Edward the third King of England who at that time began to lay claime to the crowne of France as the inheritance of Isabel his mother So haue we turned our strength against our owne bowels and vanquished by ourselues haue giuen triumphs to Turkes and Saracens These are most sad chances but great is the comfort that wee haue yet strength enough to destroy that barbarous Monarchy Nor need all the Christian Princes so ãâã in this there are many of them that are alone sufficient to gaine this victory Wee neede no innumerable Army nor a Fâeet to oreâpread the wide Ocean A man of singular iudgement and prowesse and by long experience well acquainted with the Turkish affaires was not affraid to promise to his King that if hee would giue him a Fleete and an Army of thirty thousand with pay for two yeeres and victuall for a yeere hee would reduce vnder his dominion Peloponnesus ãâã the greater part of Achaia which vnlesse he performed he desired that that Army which was committed to him should take punishment of him for deceiuing the King and by ãâã most cruell death reuenge the rashnesse of his vaine promise The same hope of victory there and scarce with so much charge not long since was giuen to a great King by a ãâã expert Captaine a man âoth for dignity and blood worthy of the charge of so great an expedition But death ãâã his great designe and ãâã was whether by poyson or no. Both these Captaines grounded their hopes vpon the strength and warlike discipline of our souldiers the number of Christians there and their prayers imploring our armes to their reliefe and lastly the slothfulnesse of the Turkes who hold by no other title the fame of âortitude then ãâã memory of their ancestours not yet wholy expired But it was the aduice of those Captaines that this firebrand must be throwne into the enemies bosome and not stand to defend our owne bounds in which the greatest reward of victory is to remooue the enemy from our Countrey who will afterwards returne more fierce vpon vs But if subdued our owne bondage and our Countreyes is present and therefore they would not haue vs stay in Hungary but marching speedily to encampe our selues in
sword-play whither more accepted âor the show or profit of it âs the furtherance of skââl in âighting For who can deny that skillfull art of striking with the âword or auoyding the blowes which were aimed at him âs a thing appertaining to the military arâ this the Graecians the Romanes and euery Nation hardâ in armes haue sought afteâ with great intention But now they fâght not as eâclâsed and ãâã in the preââe of an army as warâs are madâ but as it were in the freedomâ of an open theater they trauââse their groând âhey shift their bodies with all agâlity and by safe proffers of the hand and gâances of the eye they deceiue ãâã her ãâã doe rather as euery man may see enable âheir mââdeâous cruelty vpoâ ãâã hatreds then instruât themselues in a pious ãâ¦ã of thââr country and âow their rage âuen betweene friends and kindred âulââleth the height of madnesse and all impiety Kinsmen and most familiar acquaintance vpon noe heinous iniuries but vaine exceptions at idle wordes or almost for nothing are engaged in quarrels and embrued in each others blood and which you may iustly censuâ the highest degree of madnesse they fight not onely âpon their owne iniuries but wickedly enterpose themselues into the quarrels of others and engaged in hatâeds which belong not vnto them they sacâiââce themselues and the dearest of their friends For they freely goe when by these men which are to fight and aâe loth to die alone they are ãâã to thâs mortail play as it âere to a suppââ recreation and there doe ãâã doubt to ãâ¦ã should be neere and deare to man out of a most foolish desire of fame that they may bee sayd with a great contempt of life to haue gon into the field that is to âaue vndertaken a most horrid cruelty out of a barbarous ignorance of true valour But these euils and whatsoeuer else haue crept into the dispositions of the French may be well excused for the vertues of those men whom the maturity of age or weight of iudgement doth soe temper as that they are not carryed away with their country-vices There is in them a wonderfull cuâtesie not feigned nor trecherous to ensnare them whom they court with friendship they are free from decâit and secret hatreâs they are free to entertaine all who desire their acquaintance aâd society and respectiue of all men according to their degrees and rankes It is enough for a forreiner which is admitted into their company to preserue their friendship if he keepe himselfe from open villay and too absurd foây soe that in other places thou had'st neede haue a care of other men disposââons least they âurt thee but among true and accomplished Freâchmen to keepe thy selfe from giuing offence Nor is theiâ any thing more happy in humane society then the maâly sweetâesse oâ such compleat company The Fourth Chapter BRITTAINE THe greatnesse of Brittaine though it bee an Island of large extent and exposed to many and different seas may be rather esteemed by the seuerall and vnlike manners of her inhabitants then by the names and harbours of soe many shores As if in the Ocean Britâaââe alone were another world all kinde of dispositions are to bee found in her inhabitants There is not a fayrer Island ãâã the whole world Sicily Crete and Cyprus though they haue all carryed the state and names of Kingdomes if they were all ioyned into one ãâã were not able eyther in circuit or wealth to equall Brittaine Being in former times a valiant Nation they gaue occasion of many fabulous stories which by forreyne wits and languages were commonly written and read as if nothing could be fained soe strange but might be atchieued by the people of Brittaine it was once diuided into nine Kingdomes But afterward by continuall warrs and frequent leagues those Monarchies and their bounds were often changed vntill at the last the whole Island became subiect to three Princes The colonyes of Saxony whom we call English are gathered together vnder the felicity of one sâepter the reliques of the old Brittaines which constantly cleare to the Cambrian Mountaines and are cal'ed ãâã Thirdly the Scots inhabiting the North part of the Island to whom a remnaut of the Picts who were almost âooted out haue ioyned themsâlues But Wales in a shoât time vnable in warre to resist the strength of all England was ioyned to that scepter The Scots though despairing euer to bee able to conquer England yet disdaining to yeeld vnto it as an argument of lasting aemulation contended with the English not more stiffely by warre then by a different and auerse Nature from them vntill the fates condemning at last this peânicious âmulation conioyned them both vnder one King by whose spirit as it were the whole Island is now vnited in one body England abounding in rich pastures and ground fruitfull in procreation of diuerse and different trees doth euery where delight the eyes of the beholders with a most beautifull verdancy the easie and free encrease of fruite doth nourish the sloth of the common people The fertile and fat grounds doe euery where yeild such abundance of pasture for horses and bullocks as sufficeth the perpetuall greedinesse of those beasts in other places where the ground is dryer and clothed with short grasse it feedeth innumerable flockes of sheepe excusing the barrennesse of the soile with an incredible profit which is made of wooll not the sharpnes of winter vnlesse perchance it prooue harder then vsuall doth driue their cattell which are euer accustomed to the open ayre into stalls or houses They are vsually contented with open sleepes in the cold fields and such pasture as the moderate warmth of the winter doth nourish For the winters are not there so sharpe as the climate and neerenesse of the North would make vs imagine when in France where it is neerely opposite to the coast of Brittaine the winters are extreme and much more rigid in the ayre of Holland In so great an indulgence and fauour of the ayre the grounds of Brittaine doe with great ease receiue and foster the seedes of all fruite They haue tall Baytrees and Rosemary which is precious in many countries by reason of the care in planting and preseâuing of it is there common and growing oftentimes in hedges as a fence for gardens The country is able to foster vines and bring grapes to full ripenesse For the pleasant fruitfull mountaines oâ Kent and Hampsâire with other places situated to the South or East had heretofore vinâyards which afterwards they omitted to cherish by reason of the commodity of ãâã there and the cheapnesse of wine transported from Aquitance Wolues also are rooted out of that part of the country and doe not vexe the flocks of Sheepe which freely graâe and often times without the guard of a dogge For the diligence of their forefathers when the rage of wolues was exceeding fierce and deceiued or wearied the care of the shepheards rooted out by great
was called to the succession of the crowne of England a great happynesse for the strengthening of this amity among the Scots who now with a fitting ãâ¦ã inconsiderate bounty and loue the fame more then the possession of riches or else deceiued by the quality of their owne country when they haue attained to such a summe of money as would make them rich for euer in Scotland they grow too secure of future pouerty and doe not vnderstand ãâã in euery Land the expences and prices of things are answerable to the plenty of gold and siluer soe that a great quantity of money can hardly bee ãâã in any place but such as is vsed to great expences What studies soeuer they encline to they prosper in them with wonderfull successe None are mâre ãâã of ãâã duties ãâã none more vallant in fight then they nor ãâã the Muses euer appeare more beautifull then when they inspire the breâsts of Scots They are capable also of city-businesse and can fit their industry to any kinde eyther of life or fortune But those that trauell or ãâ¦ã and rely vpon no other meanes then going to the houses of their countrymen which are growne rich in other Lands and demand as it were the tribute of their country are most intollerable in their proud beggerâ Ireland by the ancient Latines called Ierna and now Hybernia is an Island not far from Brittaine and subiect to the crowne of England a great and ãâã Island commodious for shipping by reason of many hauens nor is it to bee censured by the barbarisme and sordid liuing of many of the habitants for the fruitfullinsse of it inuiteth many ãâ¦ã of England and Scotland to ãâ¦ã mortall to any venomous creatures Newets and Toades if they bee brought thither will not liue The wood transported from thence noe age nor neglect will make worme-eaten noââhung with spiders ãâã although the Irish haue their spiders but harmelesse and free from venome The beames rafters and boordings of Westminster hall where the Courts of Iustice sit are made of that wood and there a wonderfull thingâ the walls round about are filled with spiders but none of those sordid nets are spread vpon ãâã wood The Irish which liue not in Townes or ciuill places are wonderfull hardy in enduring any ayre or diet by reason of long and accustomed pouerty They can satisfie their hunger with any victuals gotten on the sudaine as venison or beefe halfe-raw They temper their meate with milke They build brittle and weake houses about the height of a man where themselues and their cattell liue together But this in those people is a thing to be wondred at the four of ãâã and ease doth soften the courages of other Nations but maketh the Irââ valfant in warre For by reason of their sloth though their fields are fertile yet tilling and sowing are things almost vnknowne to them They are content with that grafte which the ground yeeldeth of her owne accord for pasture for their cattell They exercise noe ãâã dycrafts for feare of disparaging that Nobility which they soe highly boast of Soe in a sordid and filthy idlenesse they lead their liues and had rather cure by patience then industry the discommodities which are daily companions of their barbarous liuing and soe farre are they from knowing delight as they feele not want and misery In one single garment they endure both wet and cold by often hunting they grow wonderfull swift in running equalling almost the wildbeasts when they are weary or benighted the ground serues them for a lodging and couered with snow or wet with showres yet they are sooner raised by satiety of sleeping ãâã by the ãâã of the weather excellent rudimeats of warre and valour if they did not proceede from such filthy sloth This beastlynesse in time of peace also nâyther the fellowship of the English nor the âmulation of the Spanish fashions can make them to shake off but they loue this life soe full of sordid discommodities as free from cares assured by a wicked shadow of liberty which in different kindes has fouly deceiued diuerse ãâã They are obstinate in their ãâã viees haters of labour and foe of all profit but very industrious in theeuing and ãâã or any ãâã which is like to hunting And these are the slothfull miseries of the common people The Noblemen are many of them very faithfull of braue mindes nuâtured in ãâã vertues that befit their dignities Those alsoe that liue in Citties or the pleasantest parts of the Kingdome are adorned with great humanity and declare by this that those wilde Irish are barbarous by their owne willfullnesse and not borne to that vice by the fare of the Island The Fift Chapter GERMANY THe Riuer Rhene arising from the foote of the Alpeâ and flowing along the borders of the Low-countries doth there fall into the Ocean It was once the bound of Germany but now by the changes of ãâã and Empires the limits of Germany being encreased it may bee sayd to run through it Germany is a spacious country reaching from the Alpeâ and France as farre as Sarmaââ and Pannonia diuided into many principalities and comââââealths It was once full of âoods and wild inhabitants but now beautified euery where with faire Townes the woods which were once great and orespread the country are now reduced to vse and Ornament It nourisheth vines in that part where it bordereth vpon Italy and where it declineth towards Pannonia as likewise vpon those hils which ouershadow the Rhene and some few places besides where the ground by fauour of some hils and warmth of the riuers is fitted for that purpose The cold grounds in their mountaines ãâã with firre trees and other woods Ister the Prince of riuers in Europe doth cut almost through the midst of Germany and rises in a sea-like channell to the yearely ruine of bridges there whose bankes are beautiful with famous cities but toâ few for the greatnesse of foâ noble a riuer Rhene Albâ and many riuers famous in old times doe flow through all the breadth of Germany The country is full of good âânes on the side where the Alpes bound it and all along the course of Ister in those places ãâã where Rhene runnes and Mânis with the Mazâ encreââ of soe great a riuer but the side of the country which lyâ toward the Ocean and the ââner Land remooued from the famous and publike rodes foâ nasty Innes and sordid ãâã of liuing in generall ãâã much of that Geâââus which Ancient Writers haue ascribed to it Yet there are cities not vnworthy of some the market-places and streets especially craftly handsome the houses of lofty and euen structure the frailer parts of the building couered with printings The inner parts of their houses are not with like skill fitted for vse their beds are placed in the remote and for the most part obscure places of the house They doe not vse lightly any chimneyes at all They had rather vse certaine little